It’s been 13 years since I last visited Toronto, but despite several trips here in dot-com days, we never properly met. Flying in, meeting and then flying out, it was more about taxis and conference rooms than immersive explorations.
“Toronto is the New York of Canada!” one colleague proclaimed, and that seemed half-plausible at the time, at least in the high-rise verticality of Toronto’s downtown.
Well, after spending four days in the “Queen City” with Tourism Toronto and some lively U.S. association planners last month, I can report that Toronto is quite its own city, thank you, and that my long-running love affair with Canada has a keen new paramour.
Like New York, Canada’s largest and most diverse city is a powerhouse of culture, cuisine and creativity—but it is animated with its own distinct spirit of welcome and community.
“We at Tourism Toronto approach customer service in a slightly different way,” says David Whitaker, the organization’s president and CEO. “It is about sharing our passion for our city. The best part is, it’s not necessarily to set the standard—it allows our clients to. Whatever you are into, we can help you get into it in Toronto. That’s what makes it unique and makes it fun for both us and our clients.”
Indeed, sharing defines Toronto’s group market mindset. From marketing support to numerous agenda-boosting options, it’s a team- and spirit-building city like few others.PageBreak
Great Expectations
Whether bringing a citywide convention with over 2,500 peak rooms or a small group on retreat, Tourism Toronto offers marketing, communications, attendance-building and other support, from social media promotions to helping U.S. attendees obtain passports. It’s part of the collaborative approach planners can expect from Toronto. Another is the great diversity of planning options, starting with getting to Toronto in the first place.
Located in booming Mississauga just west of the city, Pearson International Airport is Toronto’s traditional gateway. However, flying into Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport on Canadian upstart Porter Airlines is an increasingly appealing option. The carrier offers direct service from Newark, N.J.; Boston; Chicago; Burlington, Vt.; and, starting this April, Washington, D.C. (Dulles International). It’s as painless and efficient as air travel can be these days, and Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, featuring complimentary Internet and beverages at its dedicated U.S. departures terminal, is a free, one-minute ferry ride from downtown Toronto.
Toronto’s many enticing venues include Corus Quay, the futuristic headquarters and broadcast center of Canadian media conglomerate Corus Entertainment. Rental spaces in the LEED Gold-certified building include the spectacular Atrium, featuring a five-story “bio-wall” and access to an outdoor lakefront promenade. There’s a fully wired (literally) boardroom on the eighth floor with a glass tabletop exposing colorful Wi-Fi and phone cables, a dramatic theater and outdoor terraces on the eighth floor and themed spaces throughout. PageBreak
“Since opening in 2010, we have worked with over 300 clients to produce memorable and award-winning events in an architecturally impressive and technically advanced venue,” says Scott Dyer, Corus Entertainment’s executive vice president, shared services and chief technology officer.
Yesteryear technology distinguishes the nearby Distillery District, a celebrated national historic site that was once the world’s largest distillery of whisky and other spirits. Operating from 1832 to 1990, the Gooderham and Worts Distillery was reborn in 2003 as a pedestrian-only cultural district, its 44 heritage buildings representing North America’s largest collection of Victorian-era industrial architecture.
It’s multiuse to the max, including office space, condos, boutiques, wine bars and art galleries. The Stone Distillery Fermenting Cellar and Cannery Room are evocative event spaces, there’s great food at the atmospheric Boiler House and Pure Spirits, and SOMA Chocolatemaker is intoxicating.
“Guided walking or Segway tours are a great way to learn about the fascinating history and architecture of the area,” says Jason Rizzuti, manager of Distillery District-based Segway of Ontario.
Open from May to October, EdgeWalk is a thrilling hands-free ledge walk around the top of the CN Tower’s main pod. SPiN Galactic, meanwhile, is the Toronto outpost of a “ping pong social club” concept (also in New York and Milwaukee) involving table tennis competitions, a live DJ, bar service and fare including fish tacos and Guinness-flavored ice cream.
Event-ready cultural standouts include the venerable Royal Ontario Museum, with masterful function spaces such as the Hyacinth Gloria Chen Crystal Court and the scenic, top-floor c5 restaurant; the Frank Gehry-redesigned Art Gallery of Ontario, debuting Picasso masterworks from the Musee National Picasso in Paris starting this May; the hilltop, castle-like Casa Loma, built in 1914; and the Hockey Hall of Fame, housed in a restored 1880s bank building.
Fanning out across Greater Toronto, fast-growing Mississauga offers the excellent multifunctional Living Arts Centre; trampolines galore at the new Sky Zone; and Celebration Square, a new cultural hub that opened last summer. Architectural buffs will also enjoy Mississauga’s new undulating condo towers, nicknamed “Marilyn” for their Monroe-like curves. North of the airport, the business hub of Brampton, Greater Toronto’s third-largest city, offers more than 1,400 guest rooms and 30,000 square feet of hotel meeting space.
Nestled in the scenic Don Valley east of Toronto, Evergreen Brick Works is a restored sustainability-focused heritage site for meetings and events. To the northeast, historic Markham, also known as “Silicon Valley North” for its concentration of tech headquarters, has meetings-ready venues including the Hilton Suites Toronto/Markham Conference Centre and Spa and the Markham Theatre for Performing Arts.PageBreak
Gift Packages
Exemplifying Toronto’s community-centric approach is Tourism Toronto’s acclaimed “Relax, Recharge, Renew” program. Supported by over 200 local tourism partners, including our host hotel, the InterContinental Toronto Centre, the program provides parents of special needs children with much-needed weekend getaway packages. Learning of the $100 donation made to the program in lieu of welcome gifts for each member of our group was an inspiring, uplifting start to the visit.
Generous, too, is Toronto’s supremely accommodating meetings and conventions package. With over 2.5 million square feet of exhibition and convention space, it is little wonder that Toronto is the top choice for U.S.-sponsored association meetings outside the U.S.
Minutes from Pearson International Airport and surrounded by some 10,000 hotel rooms, the Toronto Congress Centre in Mississauga is among Canada’s largest show venues, with 1 million-plus square feet of multifunctional event space. Meanwhile, the nearby 500,000-square-foot multipurpose International Centre, with its new Craft Eatery, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.
On the approach to Toronto’s core along Lake Ontario, the 192-acre Exhibition Place complex attracts over 5.3 million visitors a year, with attractions galore and group-ready venues including the massive Direct Energy Centre, the sustainability-driven Allstream Centre, Ricoh Coliseum and the 20,000-capacity BMO Field, Canada’s first soccer-specific stadium.
Located in the heart of downtown Toronto next to the iconic CN Tower, the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, with over 600,000 square feet of exhibit and meeting space, is Canada’s leading convention and trade show facility.
With 586 guest rooms and 18,000 square feet of flexible space, the attached InterContinental Toronto Centre forms part of a 13,000-plus room inventory within walking distance of the convention center.
Union Station is two blocks away for arrival by train, directly across from the regal Fairmont Royal York.
Also nearby are two standout meetings properties, the landmark, freshly renovated 977-room Westin Harbour Castle Hotel and the 1,377-room Sheraton Centre Hotel, which has more than 100,000 square feet of function space and recently underwent a renovation that expanded its square footage of contiguous exhibit space on one level to more than 60,000 square feet.PageBreak
Crown Jewels
Celebrating its one-year anniversary last month, the 267-room Ritz-Carlton, Toronto, the city’s sole five-star property, is proof positive of the enduring power of the Ritz brand and the ability of an upmarket hotel to perform in a down economy. Located one block from the convention center and across the street from the Roy Thompson Hall entertainment venue in the heart of the Financial District, the hotel’s autonomous meeting space is highlighted by Toronto’s largest luxury ballroom and spacious prefunction areas overlooking Wellington Street. Also hard to beat is the hotel’s 23,000-square-foot Urban Spa & Salon. You’ll float after experiencing the Cloud 9 massage and co-ed relaxation lounge.
The bi-level Quartz Crystal Spa is a key feature of the 261-room Trump International Hotel & Tower Toronto, which opened in January and features 12,000 square feet of function space, including the grand staircase-connected Grand Ballroom and Grand Salon. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the brand’s founding in Toronto, the 259-room Four Seasons Hotel Toronto opens in its new Yorkville location this summer. Another mid-year opening, the Shangri-La Hotel Toronto, marks the brand’s Canadian debut and features superstar chef David Chang’s tantalizing Momofuku concept, partially housed in a translucent cube.
Now under construction adjacent to the CN Tower, Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada is set to open in summer 2013. The $130 million project will feature more than 13,500 exotic sea and freshwater creatures.
With many other developments afoot, it’s time to discover all that Toronto has to offer. Even longtime rival (based mostly on hockey) Montreal is awakening to Toronto’s gifts.
“Sacre bleu! It’s time Montrealers revisit Toronto, give the ‘Queen City’ a second chance!” declared Montreal Gazette lifestyle columnist Richard Burnett last month.
I could not agree with him more.
Regular Meetings Focus East contributor Jeff Heilman’s Canadian love affair continues this summer with coverage of the eastern provinces and a visit to the bucolic southern Laurentians.
